S. African Pupils Get Crisis Rule Botha Order Prepares For School Start Today

July 14, 1986|By Washington Post

JOHANNESBURG — President P.W. Botha, anticipating a confrontation when 1.7 million black children return today to South Africa's segregated school system, invoked the government's sweeping emergency decree Sunday to empower education officials to bar or expel any student from school without a hearing or explanation.

South Africa braced for widespread protests from students objecting to these and other school restrictions, and from black trade unionists who have called strikes and slowdowns for today to demand the release of the estimated 250 labor officials detained under the emergency, now in its second month.

Botha's proclamation adds teeth to the security measures at the country's 7,000 black schools that the government announced last week. Guards will be at all schools and pupils must wear identity cards in an attempt to keep out ''outside agitators.''

The new regulations also empower education officials to place students in any class the officials deem proper. Students who refuse to accept such placements ''shall be deemed to have left the school voluntarily'' and will have to leave school grounds.

Further police orders in a number of black urban areas restrict student movement on school grounds, bar them from any unsupervised or political activities and prohibit them from being outdoors during school hours.

The restrictions are intended to prevent a repetition of widespread unrest over the past two years when students used the schools to organize political protests and boycotts.

Police, who delayed the reopening of schools for two weeks, see them as a critical battleground in their attempt to quell the country's anti-apartheid movement.

The Department of Education and Training had sought last year to negotiate with black parents and student groups to end school boycotts and return at least some degree of normality to the country's troubled schools.

But the new decrees and restrictions were drawn up without consulting black groups and have brought heated denunciations.

The National Education Crisis Committee, the premier black education group, denounced the new measures as ''a clear recipe for confrontation'' between students and police officers.

Similarly, there were reports Sunday that leaders of the Transvaal Students' Congress had voted for a two-week walkout to protest the new measures.

The congress, which is affiliated with the United Democratic Front, the country's leading anti-apartheid coalition, last week accused the government of turning the schools into ''Nazi camps.''

The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the country's largest black labor federation, Sunday confirmed its plans for a national ''day of action'' today to protest the emergency and union detentions.

In the politically active townships around Johannesburg, trade union officials said, they plan for workers to stay away from their jobs. In other areas, including key gold and diamond mines, they ask that workers stage slowdowns and sit-ins once on the job.

In other developments:

-- Government officials reported two more deaths in black-against-black violence. A child was burned to death near Johannesburg. A man in his 30s was stabbed to death in Soweto. The Information Bureau would not confirm reports from Soweto that four black youths were killed by migrant workers late Friday. The official death toll since the state of emergency was imposed June 12 has now reached 154.

-- The Australian government warned its Commonwealth partners that the group's future was threatened by Britain's refusal to impose economic sanctions against South Africa. Foreign Minister Bill Hayden said there were increasing indications that African nations, the organization's biggest single bloc, were preparing to abandon the Commonwealth.